Meet the GOP House Candidate Moonlighting as a Communist Party Agent
Even the Trump administration is a bit skeptical of this one.
An enemy of the people
VICTOR MELLOR HAS QUITE THE RESUME. He is the former (unpaid, informal) chief of staff to disgraced QAnon advocate and retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn, he was present at the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, and he is vying for the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Democratic Rep. Seth Magaziner for his seat in Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District.
And now Mellor has added a new job to the list: foreign agent on behalf of Communists in Cuba.
According to a Foreign Agents Registration Act filing dated June 16, Mellor was engaged in late May by Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for work “deliberating on ideas for improving Cuban-American relations, suggesting content ideas and discussing how Cubans communicate amongst each other compared to Americans communicating amongst each other.”
Cuban muckety-muck Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro has also engaged Mellor for similar purposes, according to a separate FARA filing. The grandson of Raúl Castro, the former Cuban leader recently indicted by the United States, the younger Castro is a well-connected figure within Cuban government, politics, and internal security; he has reportedly been involved in talks with the U.S. State Department about the future of the island and its Communist government. Over there, according to CNN, they call him “the Crab”—on account of a malformed finger. Pretty cruel, really.
Castro and Mellor met to discuss “potential preparation of informational materials and dissemination, currently providing sample ideas for social media content and strategies plus how to bridge communication gaps between Cubans and Americans,” according to the second filing.
The filing also notes that Mellor discussed “expectations and relationship building” with his Cuban contacts, and that the activities he is undertaking related to the Cuban government are intended to promote “communication and cultural differences to further perspective and conquer communication challenges.”
Mellor’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
About a week prior to Mellor’s registration, USA Today spotted him returning from a trip to Cuba, during which he met with Communist Party leaders and seems to have served as a sort of self-appointed envoy to the island nation.
“I’m not back-channeling and I’m not going to circumvent Marco Rubio,” Mellor insisted to USA Today. “[Rubio’s] been doing an amazing job. A conversation isn’t betrayal. We’re having an open dialogue. I don’t see how I could hurt anybody.”
The move earned a stern condemnation from the U.S. State Department. A spokesperson told the paper that Mellor “is not authorized to speak on behalf of the United States government and is not involved in anything the administration is doing.”
As for what Mellor is expected to deliver for the Cubans, both filings state, “There is no agreement or understanding.” This suggests that the filings could be meant to circumvent further scrutiny from the Trump administration. It’s all quite strange. Typically, a single meeting does not warrant registration as a foreign agent. Registration usually comes after the agent has entered into a fleshed-out agreement to influence U.S. public policy or opinion on behalf of the foreign actor. Curiously, in the filing in which Mellor claims he working as an agent of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the field where he would list the “name and title of official(s) with whom registrant engages” is marked simply “Unknown.”
Shortly after becoming attorney general early last year, Pam Bondi defanged the FARA unit to limit criminal enforcement to “instances of alleged conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors.”1
Mellor seems to have a thing for smoke and mirrors. Last Wednesday, a group of House Republicans hosted a press conference at the U.S. Capitol urging the passage of a third reconciliation bill to advance health policy changes. Mellor accompanied them but did not speak. Instead, he departed the press conference before it ended, then returned to the lectern to film his own speech, which was staged and edited to give the impression that he was answering questions from reporters. A person familiar with the event’s planning said Mellor was not included as an official speaker.
In the Oval Office on Monday, after being prompted with a question about “socialist candidates across the United States” being inspired by the success of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, President Donald Trump said he considers “communism” to be the “biggest threat to our nation there is—maybe since our founding.”
“That includes World War I, World War II, September 11th. It includes the Pearl Harbor attack,” he added. “I think this is the biggest threat to our nation.”
Maybe he should check the House races in his own party this cycle.
The Thomas Kean affair
Rep. Tom Kean (R-N.J.) had been missing in action since March 5, and during his absence, he skipped more than 140 votes. Until this past weekend, Kean had not been seen at all, and he had only been heard from once while conducting a brief phone interview with local media. (During that call, he vowed to run for re-election but refused to explain his disappearance.) He gave no notice to Republican leaders or his fellow Republicans in the New Jersey delegation before making his sudden disappearance. His constituents were left equally befuddled. His absence came to light only after reporters and other lawmakers started wondering why there was consistently at least one missing GOP vote.
Despite his absence, Kean continued to file stock transaction disclosures, introduce legislation, and submit remarks to the congressional record. This wasn’t exactly positive proof of life so much as evidence of exceptional work by his staff, who continued to post on Kean’s various social media accounts using a first-person voice on the congressman’s behalf.
Well, now we do have proof of life. Kean returned to Capitol Hill and revealed in a floor speech Tuesday that earlier in the year, a doctor diagnosed him with depression and advised him to remain in the hospital for treatment.
Kean said when he first entered the hospital, he “did not believe that this would result in a long-term stay.”
But following what he characterized as a proper amount of treatment and time away, he is back and ready to serve in Congress again.
“I am grateful that I accepted help, because today I stand before you healthier, stronger, and excited to return to the work that I love,” he said.
“Asking for help is not a weakness,” Kean concluded. “It is a strength.”
Kean did not address his reason for withholding the diagnosis or treatment from his colleagues and constituents. Perhaps he considers keeping people in the dark to be a strength, as well.
The great escape from boring shirts
A couple weeks ago, I noted a new trend that appears to be taking hold this summer: religion-themed sportswear. Today, I want to share a great story about the history of one of the original pieces of cool sportswear: bowling shirts.
You might have noticed bowling shirts being worn by more and more men these days. They’re easy to spot, thanks to their characteristic construction and use of unique color patterns. Those features owe to the sport’s long history of individualized design and customization in its uniforms. Versions of bowling date back to ancient Egypt, but our modern conception of it is uniquely American. Learning about the iconic open-collared garment that bowlers wear can serve as a perfect palate cleanser in advance of the July Fourth weekend.
Oli Stevenson has the story at Heddels:
When we think of clothing made specifically for sports, we tend to think of technical fabrics designed to keep athletes at the top of their game. But not for bowling. As a sport where you spend most of the time hanging with your homies and maybe drinking a few beers, bowling needed something different. Bowling needed a shirt that was loose and comfortable, so that bowlers could wear them for hours down the alley. So, in a way, they are designed for movement and to keep athletes at the top of their game.
In truth, the bowling shirt is just a tweak on the classic mid-century sports shirt, but its history is so much more than that. Join us as we take a look at the history of the bowling shirt, what it is, how it came to be, and where to buy some really nice examples today. We’ll set ’em up, you knock ’em down.
Read the whole article to get the taste of politics out of your mouth, and maybe pick up a vintage bowling shirt the next time you’re out shopping. Not for nothing, but they go great with a can of domestic beer and a pair of grilling tongs.
That means that, say, a foreign agent representing another government’s tourism board or telecommunications company will face far less probing than an individual like Mellor, who directly engaged a regime considered hostile to the United States.
Did anyone, anywhere ever expect these four words strung together: "cool sportswear: bowling shirts"?
I remember when Sen. Tom Eagleton was hounded off the Democratic ticket as vice president in 1972 due to the revelation of his history of depression. He was named by George McGovern, and resigned from the ticket in less than two weeks. Eagleton had undergone electroshock therapy years earlier. Both the treatment he had endured and the stigma of his disease were barbaric by contemporary standards.
A half-century has passed. We like to think we are more enlightened and tolerant of mental health & illness. Perhaps not.
Thus it is an open question whether Rep. Tom Kean's political career has been effectively ended. He has clearly forgotten the main lesson of the Watergate era: "It's not the diagnosis but the coverup."